Yo H, where've you been?
Still here, busy with work and some holiday planning. In addition, I have a German visiting. She came to me through http://www.hospitalityclub.org/, similar to http://www.couchsurfing.org/ if you know that one.
She is a student who has never been to the UK before or to any native English speaking country. She's spending her time and limited student funds trying to see as much of the country as possible and rachet up her English, which until now has been only 'school English'.
Not wanting to deter someone from their dream, I've only been speaking English to her-- although I will give her the English word when she only knows the German term. She wanted to 'mitfahren' to save on expensive British train fares but was having difficulty to find a source in English without knowing the term 'rideshare'.
Of course she makes the classic German mistakes: 'I drive with bus'.
But I love the other mistakes or how someone comes up with a way to say something in English, which while correct is not how a native would usually say it, because it gives you better insight into their language and seeing things in differently in English. This morning as I'm trundling out to work she tells me:
Your cat, she was broken in this night.
(Pause, Heather thinking--looks at cat who is noisily gulping down breakfast--she is physically fine having ran into the kitchen upon hearing me...)
(thinking.....The cat does meow a lot, I did warn the girl that the cat can be locked in the hall so she is not so disruptive....or maybe the cat was walking on her while she was trying to sleep, meaning she's broken or not well trained, although I did warn her that she wakes up at 2 AM full of energy....the girl is not so much a cat person, she's always had dogs....I haven't yet had any coffee so I'm not awake enough to figure this one out....she's broken...kaputt sein...defekt...lots of words ending in brochen, what can she mean?)
On the floor...where you are standing...?
Oh! She threw up, she was sick = she is broken.
Sheesh, I must be losing my touch, I don't think I would have figured that one out even with coffee.
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3 comments:
Whoah, that was a hard. Yeah, "brechen" is the word for throwing up so "Deine Katze hat gebrochen" = your cat was broken. Very resourceful girl, that one.:-)
christina: thanks for that, funny i never picked that one up in the office environment. :-)
too funny. Almost as funny as my most recent German mistake (details on blog).
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